Articles & Case Studies

Scottish Water Mines Valuable Resources From Wastewater

Posted: Thursday 8th January 2015

Applied CleanTech (ACT) announces promising results of a pilot project conducted with Scottish Water to test its SRS sewage recycling technology for wastewater, at Dunbar and Aviemore Waste Water Treatment Works, the first installation of ACT's Sewage Recycling System (SRS) in the UK.

Scottish Water has been testing whether value can be recovered from sewage while reducing maintenance and power costs.

"In a nutshell, ACT's SRS technology is a very fine filter that captures all the cellulose and some of the fats, oils and grease coming into the waste water treatment works," says George Ponton, Head of Innovation at Scottish Water. "The solids are then pasteurised producing a pellet material called Recyllose™. These pellets could then be used as a raw material in paper, plastic, construction, energy and other industries."

"Using Recyllose can substantially reduce the amount of sewage sludge produced; which is good news as we can run the plant using less power, reduce sludge tankering frequency and cut down the plant maintenance requirements as a result of less solids getting through."

"The ACT system also reduces Scottish Water's carbon footprint and emissions by using less power and resources, and increases the lifespan of the equipment we use to treat wastewater. Overall the addition of the process may reduce operating costs between 20% and 30%. The potential savings are passed on to customers by keeping their water and wastewater charges low."

"By creating less sludge, we also don't have to send as much of it to be processed at our sludge treatment centre in Edinburgh. Sludge is a by-product of the waste water treatment process and is treated under extremely strict regulations. In many cases the end product of this treatment is a recyclable soil nutrient."

The SRS has been successfully used internationally in Mexico, Canada, Israel and the Netherlands. After successful global installations, Applied CleanTech enters its next round of investment, looking for partners in the UK that will join its success and continue its achievements in producing this new compound of recycled cellulose from an endless, untapped resource.